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That was Regis Philbin’s reaction to the almost over the top praise in the U.S. for former TSN anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole, who debuted on Fox Sports Live on Saturday.

Philbin, who was one of the high profile hires for the network, hosts the new panel show Crowd Goes Wild and had some fun with the buzz generated by the quippy Canadians, as they were what had sports media watchers across the U.S. the most excited about the channel’s launch.

“Here in America, Onrait and O’Toole are as good as the best pairings of SportsCenter anchors. … They’re funny without snark, and the meshing of their natural enthusiasm with an ability to be self-deprecating really goes a long way,” wrote SBNation’s Steve Lepore.

“Jay and Dan lived up to the expectations I had. They were fun. They don’t take things too seriously. They had a lot of jokes and moments that would have felt out of place or raised eyebrows had they been on ESPN’s SportsCenter. These moments were spontaneous and frequent enough where I can see why they attracted a significant following north of the border and think they’ll do the same here. I like them, but will say they are an acquired taste,” wrote Awful Announcing’s Ben Koo.

But the two are likely the biggest successful Toronto imports since Drake, and also reinforces that old saw that we Canadians are funny. An editor here said they (at least, Onrait) may have fit on something like Second City back in its hey day, and they have brought that skit mentality to their work in the past. But it is interesting that these are the funniest Canadians to break into the U.S. since Jim Carrey and Mike Myers.

What’s also amusing is seeing ESPNers react to FS1’s attempts at being the funny brand. ESPN anchor Scott Van Pelt told the Sports Business Journal:

“The easiest thing in the world to do is to talk a bunch of junk on Twitter. They’re really good at that — poking the bear with a stick. I would swing up, too, if I were them. That’s what they’re doing. The idea that they co-opted fun in sports and that ESPN and SportsCenter is some kind of a trip to the dentist is laughable. I have fun every single time I do SportsCenter. If they want to be fun, great. Go have fun. I encourage you to do so because we do it every day. That’s the one thing I found to be a head-scratcher, that they planted their flag on this fun hill, as if they discovered it. Like they’re the Christopher Columbus of fun in sports and they’re putting their flag down on that hill. Really? We’ve been living here since 1979. Welcome to the fun of sports.”

Perhaps somebody should call in the in the NBA’s old Fun Police so we can have a ruling.

But the real story here is that FS1’s plucking of our beloved anchors has been the slam dunk success of their launch. American sports media has always been much more competitive than in Canada, but FS1’s underdog desire to take on ESPN, and initially decent ratings make it seem like there might actually be a real fight ahead.

The Fox Football Daily show is available here on Sportsnet One at 6 p.m., and what we caught of the debut is fine, but remains your standard analyst and ex-athlete gabfest, which is what most of the criticism has been of Fox Sports 1. Even Fox Sports Live grafts a panel onto the regular highlights, except for Sundays, when Onrait and O’Toole have the run of the place.

Back here at home, TSN recently told the National Post , they likely won’t name their replacements until October, and while there are some new faces working as summer fill-ins, it looks like the network is trying a chemistry experiment with various anchors to see what works.

Whatever they do, it’s unlikely they can create the same kind of goofy hit like Onrait and O’Toole, and shouldn’t try. Of what we’ve seen recently, Rod Smith and Kate Beirness, who are currently on the Kraft Celebration Tour, look like they have pretty good chemistry together. Both are excellent and consummate pros, and are very good at delivering the news in a straight and professional manner.

But in these days of sports anchors being all fun all the time, that might not be good enough. Funny how times change.

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